More Risk, More Reward?

Well as you can probably guess 2020 was an interesting year. It made me question ski resorts especially. Do I really want to go and be around thousands of others on a ski hill during a Pandemic? So Myself, and probably half of Canada looked into Backcountry Touring. Not only that but split boarding.

Split boarding is essentially a snowboard that can break apart into two skis, which you can attach skins to so you're able to walk uphill without sliding backwards. Pretty genius if you ask me.

Thankfully a few of friends are very talented already and do this. So I though, as hiking is one of my favourite things to do, and so is snowboarding, why not combine the two and grind uphill to do one downhill. Call me crazy but that sounds pretty ideal.

Of course living in the Rocky Mountains in Canada with copious amounts of snow, there is a risk in doing this. Thankfully many businesses run a Avalanche Safety Course (AST) to be able to better equip you and your companions on how to identify potential or immediate risk, react to an avalanche and save someone if worse case scenario. It's a scary thing to think about if im honest, but such a real threat. From my own window I have seen Kananaskis safety let off bombs to trigger avalanches on the surrounding mountains. The force from that along is huge.

Of course along with this skills (AST 1 is just scratching the surface and I would love to delve deeper in further courses), you require equipment. Beacons, probes and shovel to name a few. Now its not essential to have for back country, but very highly recommended. I personally wouldn't want to go if I didn't have this knowledge, and I certainly wouldn't want to go with someone who was without it. Not only would I be putting you in danger, but myself. You may think the value isn't worth it, but how much is a life worth?

I learnt many valuable tools with AST-1. Not only how to identify features on the mountains to avoid, but the snow, the weather and also how to decide what kind of terrain I want to do given the previous conditions. This is one of my hardest things. Trying to figure out where to go. The options are endless here. However, do I really think I am capable of Complex terrain?

Not a chance.

For now I am sticking to the simpler-challenging objectives. All of which preferably have a descent that I can strap in and cruise down.

This falls into line with the sunrise hikes thankfully. As generally you'd want to be out at your location early to ensure the snow it packed and not melting and the sun isn't higher avalanche danger than there would already be.

Slowly over time I will increase my exposure to this and be able to update this site accordingly.

Until now I have only done a few. Sunshine ski out to the "nub" behind Wawa lift, Bow Summit, Boulder Pass, Chester Lake and Storm Mountain Firebreak.

I'll keep you posted. :)